Obesity, defined as an excess of body fat relative to lean body mass, is associated with important psychological and medical morbidities, the latter including hypertension, elevated blood lipids, and Type II or non-insulin-dependent diabetes melitis (NIDDM). There are 6-10 million individuals with NIDDM in the U.S., including 18% of the population of 65 years of age (Harris et al., 1987). Approximately 45% of males and 70% of females with NIDDM are obese, and their diabetes is substantially improved or eliminated by weight reduction (Harris, 1991). As described below, both obesity and NIDDM are strongly heritable, though the predisposing genes have not been identified. The molecular genetic basis of these metabolically related disorders is an important, poorly understood problem.
The assimilation, storage, and utilization of nutrient energy constitute a complex homeostatic system central to survival of metazoa. Among land-dwelling mammals, storage in adipose tissue of large quantities of metabolic fuel as triglycerides is crucial for surviving periods of food deprivation. The need to maintain a fixed level of energy stores without continual alterations in the size and shape of the organism requires the achievement of a balance between energy intake and expenditure. However, the molecular mechanisms that regulate energy balance remain to be elucidated. The isolation of molecules that transduce nutritional information and control energy balance will be critical to an understanding of the regulation of body weight in health and disease.
An individual's level of adiposity is, to a large extent, genetically determined. Examination of the concordance rates of body weight and adiposity amongst mono- and dizygous twins or adoptees and their biological parents have suggested that the heritability of obesity (0.4-0.8) exceeds that of many other traits commonly thought to have a substantial genetic component, such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, and atherosclerosis (Stunkard et al., 1990). Familial similarities in rates of energy expenditure have also been reported (Bogardus et al., 1986). Genetic analysis in geographically delimited populations has suggested that a relatively small number of genes may account for the 30%-50% of variance in body composition (Moll et al., 1991). However, none of the genes responsible for obesity in the general population have been genetically mapped to a definite chromosomal location.
Rodent models of obesity include seven apparently single-gene mutations. The most intensively studied mouse obesity mutations are the ob (obese) and db (diabetes) genes. When present on the same genetic strain background, ob and db result in indistinguishable metabolic and behavioral phenotypes, suggesting that these genes may function in the same physiologic pathway (Coleman, 1978). Mice homozygous for either mutation are hyperphagic and hypometabolic, leading to an obese phenotype that is notable at one month of age. The weight of these animals tends to stabilize at 60-70 g (compared with 30-35 g in control mice). ob and db animals manifest a myriad of other hormonal and metabolic changes that have made it difficult to identify the primary defect attributable to the mutation (Bray et al., 1989).
Each of the rodent obesity models is accompanied by alterations in carbohydrate metabolism resembling those in Type II diabetes in man. In some cases, the severity of the diabetes depends in part on the background mouse strain (Leiter, 1989). For both ob and db, congenic C57BL/Ks mice develop a severe diabetes with ultimate β cell necrosis and islet atrophy, resulting in a relative insulinopenia. Conversely, congenic C57BL/6J ob and db mice develop a transient insulin-resistant diabetes that is eventually compensated by cell hypertrophy resembling human Type II diabetes.
The phenotype of ob and db mice resembles human obesity in ways other than the development of diabetes—the mutant mice eat more and expend less energy than do lean controls (as do obese humans). This phenotype is also quite similar to that seen in animals with lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus, which suggests that both mutations may interfere with the ability to properly integrate or respond to nutritional information within the central nervous system. Support for this hypothesis comes from the results of parabiosis experiments (Coleman, 1973) that suggest ob mice are deficient in a circulating satiety factor and that db mice are resistant to the effects of the ob factor (possibly due to an ob receptor defect). These experiments have led to the conclusion that obesity in these mutant mice may result from different defects in an afferent loop and/or integrative center of the postulated feedback mechanism that controls body composition.
Using molecular and classical genetic markers, the ob and db genes have been mapped to proximal chromosome 6 and midchromosome 4, respectively (Bahary et al., 1990; Friedman et al., 1991b). In both cases, the mutations map to regions of the mouse genome that are syntonic with human, suggesting that, if there are human homologs of ob and db, they are likely to map, respectively, to human chromosomes 7q and 1p. Defects in the db gene may result in obesity in other mammalian species: in genetic crosses between Zucker fa/fa rats and Brown Norway +/+rats, the fa mutation (rat chromosome 5) is flanked by the same loci that flank db in mouse (Truett et al., 1991).
Because of the myriad factors that seem to impact body weight, it is difficult to speculate as to which of these factors, and more particularly, which homeostatic mechanism is actually primarily determinative. Nonetheless, the apparent connection between the ob gene and the extent and characteristics of obesity have prompted the further investigation and elucidation that is reflected by the present application. It is the identification of the sequence of the gene and corresponding peptide materials, to which the present invention following below directs itself.
The citation of any reference herein should not be construed as an admission that such reference is prior art to the instant invention. Full citations of references cited by author and year are found at the end of the specification.